{"id":381832,"date":"2026-01-21T07:42:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T07:42:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/381832\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T07:42:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T07:42:08","slug":"russia-urges-great-britain-to-drop-the-word-great-from-its-name","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/381832\/","title":{"rendered":"Russia urges Great Britain to DROP the word ‘great’ from its name"},"content":{"rendered":"

Russia’s Foreign Minister has called for Great Britain to drop the word “great” from its name in a mocking rant.<\/p>\n

Vladimir Putin’s close ally Sergei Lavrov unleashed the scathing attack during a press conference in Moscow on Tuesday, saying it was the only country to ever bestow the title of “great” upon itself. <\/p>\n

Mr Lavrov said: “I think that Britain should be called simply Britain because ‘Great Britain’ is the only example of a country which calls itself ‘Great’.”<\/p>\n

His barb came amid a conversation on colonialism after the topic of Greenland was brought up by reporters. <\/p>\n

After the comments were made, Mr Lavrov quipped to a British reporter: “No offence.”<\/p>\n

He drew a comparison between the UK and Muammar Gaddafi’s former Libyan state, which was known as the Great Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya. <\/p>\n

“But it no longer exists,” Mr Lavrov added. <\/p>\n

The remark appears deliberately calculated, given that Russians commonly refer to the United Kingdom as “Velikobritaniya” – Great Britain.<\/p>\n

\"Sergei<\/p>\n

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov unleashed the scathing attack during a press conference in Moscow<\/p>\n

| <\/p>\n

GETTY<\/p>\n

Mr Lavrov weighed in on the escalating row over Greenland’s future, declaring that the Arctic territory represents “a colonial conquest” rather than being organically Danish.<\/p>\n

His remarks came as President Donald Trump kept up his case for US control over the island.<\/p>\n

Though the Putin ally carefully sidestepped any direct commentary on Washington’s territorial ambitions.<\/p>\n

He did, however, have time to swiped at Nato, which he said was “being put to the test”.<\/p>\n

“What is it really worth?” he added.<\/p>\n

RUSSIA – READ THE LATEST:<\/p>\n

\"Nato<\/p>\n

Mr Lavrov boasted that Nato was ‘being put to the test’<\/p>\n

| <\/p>\n

GETTY<\/p>\n

Moscow has been keeping close tabs on the transatlantic feud as Mr Trump’s Arctic adventurism rumbles on.<\/p>\n

The US President has claimed that Denmark lacks the military capability<\/a> to protect Greenland from potential Russian or Chinese aggression.<\/p>\n

The island’s position beneath a flight corridor connecting the US and Russia renders it a strategically significant location for aerial defence systems.<\/p>\n

But this growing rift within the West carries potential consequences for the Kremlin’s own aspirations in the High North.<\/p>\n

\"Putin\"\/<\/p>\n

Mr Putin previously said that the President had ‘serious plans regarding Greenland’<\/p>\n

| REUTERS<\/p>\n

Russian officials have bristled at Mr Trump’s assertion that Moscow poses a threat to the Danish territory.<\/p>\n

The Russian Embassy in Belgium accused Nato last week of attempting to carry out “accelerated militarisation of the North”.<\/p>\n

Mr Putin previously said that the President had “serious plans regarding Greenland” with “long-standing historical roots”.<\/p>\n

The Russian leader declared in March 2025 that the issue “concerns two specific nations and has nothing to do with us”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Russia’s Foreign Minister has called for Great Britain to drop the word “great” from its name in a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":381833,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,154,56,54,55,231],"class_list":["post-381832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-russia","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=381832"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381832\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/381833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=381832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=381832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=381832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}